The Blogworld of Poppyfish People Development

Old Bill Shakespeare knew a thing or two about most things, but not even he dared to combine theatre with performance management.  Forum Theatre is a style of drama pioneered by the radical, innovative and influential Brazilian dramatist Augusto Boal. First created as a way to explore how people can change the world around them Forum Theatre is used to allow audiences to take over the direction of events, allowing the audience to direct the actors in an attempt to change the outcome of events on stage. In its purest form an audience member interjects at any time in the play and steps up to take the place of the characters, or to suggest what the character should do next. The play then goes on following this new approach.  Radical? Possibly. Chaotic? Definitely. Applicable to organisational development and learning? Absolutely! At Poppyfish we can apply Forum Theatre in any context where individuals are attempting to ‘learn’ a new process or technique, especially where that te

Organisational culture can be a confusing topic, especially for those who have never come across it before. Those of us who ponce around talking about leadership and organisational dynamics tend to forget that, for many, culture is a bit of a buzzword. Often, others associate culture with going to the ballet or liking opera, not to “the way we do things around here”. So to help us explore the ideas around culture with those who have never encountered it before we’ve developed the idea of The Culture Box . It works as a great metaphor for organisational culture and doubles up as a fun group exercise for teams getting started with the concept of culture.  So how does it work?  The Culture Box Exercise For this exercise you will need a large cardboard box. The larger the better. Ideally you can use one that’s large enough for one or two members of the group to sit in. Then, with the box placed in the centre of the room, enlist your volunteer(s) and sit them in the box. If the box i